Finally, some good news from artists in their golden years! Electronic music pioneer Hans-Joachim Roedelius, best known as a member of Cluster, has announced a new album, Echtzeit. The album is Roedelius’s sixth release under the Qluster banner, a trio also comprising Onnen Bock and Armin Metz, and the name he adopted after wrapping up his four-decade partnership with Dieter Moebius. Collectively known as Cluster, Roedelius and Moebius came to prominence in the 70s thanks to a handful of albums that fused continental Europe’s electronic avant-garde with ambient’s moody soundscapes. Working as Qluster since 2011, Roedelius has delved into piano-led, quasi-neoclassical compositions (2015’s Tasten) as well as explored the vastness of electronic textures. Echtzeit promises to join both paths together, in what the band has described as improvisational but harmonious tracks.
Active since the second half of the 60s, first as a promoter/dynamo of what eventually became the legendary Zodiak Free Arts Lab (a home to Berlin’s Tangerine Dream and Ash Ra Temple), Roedelius has cultivated a truly astonishing career in music. Primarily known as a founding half of Cluster (the experimental duo he fronted with the late Dieter Moebius), he was also a member of Krautrock-supergroup Harmonia, and has collaborated with the likes of Brian Eno, Conny Plank, Conrad Schnitzler, Holger Czukay, Michael Rother, Lloyd Cole, among many others. Most of Roedelius’s work has been published under some variant of the Kluster/Cluster/Qluster name, with the letter change owing to the loss of a member (Schnitzler and Roedelius, respectively), and he has not slowed down despite recently turning 80. Actually, the Berliner has increased his output in the last decade, releasing roughly a Qluster album per year and keeping busy with a bunch of collaborative projects.
Echtzeit will be out on March 4 via Bureau B. Listen to some snippets below.
Echtzeit tracklisting
01. Stein Auf Stein
02. Beste Freunde
03. Verweile Doch
04. Von Weiter Ferne Ganz Nah
05. Glasperlenspiel
06. Zweites Kapitel
07. Das Seltsame Tier Aus Dem Norden
08. Auf Der Lichtung
09. Weg Am Hang
10. In Deinen Hände
More about: Cluster, Hans-Joachim Roedelius, Qluster
